Carbon

AES/EBU, developed jointly by the Audio Engineering Society and the European Broadcast Union, established a two-channel digital standard for interconnecting digital devices in the professional world. But, AES/EBU also has its application in the domestic environment as well. While AES/EBU can be single-ended, balanced, or optical, here we refer to the balanced-digital interconnect.

SOLID 5% SILVER CONDUCTORS: Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications. These signals, being such a high frequency, travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor. As the surface is made of high-purity silver, the performance is very close to that of a solid silver cable, but priced much closer to solid copper cable. This is an incredibly cost effective way of manufacturing very high-quality digital-audio cables.

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION: Hard-Cell Foam insulation is used exclusively in most of AudioQuest’s video and digital audio cables. Similar to Foamed-PE, it is nitrogen injected to create air pockets. ‘Hard’ foam is used because the stiffness of the material allows the conductors in the cable to maintain the same relationship with each other along the full length of the cable, thus ensuring that the characteristic impedance of the cable is consistent.

100% SHIELD COVERAGE (FOIL + TINNED BRAID): Shielding always plays an important role in any cable design, but the shield on coax interconnect plays an especially important role because it functions not only as a shield but a return path as well. Because of this, AudioQuest pays special attention to the shield’s metal quality and the fabrication techniques as both will affect the sound and the picture.

CARBON-BASED 5-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.

TERMINATIONS: Cold-Welded, Hanging-Silver directly over pure Purple Copper.

Cinnamon

AES/EBU, developed jointly by the Audio Engineering Society and the European Broadcast Union, established a two-channel digital standard for interconnecting digital devices in the professional world. But, AES/EBU also has its application in the domestic environment as well. While AES/EBU can be single-ended, balanced, or optical, here we refer to the balanced-digital interconnect.

SOLID 1.25% SILVER CONDUCTORS: Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications. These signals, being such a high frequency, travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor. As the surface is made of high-purity silver, the performance is very close to that of a solid silver cable, but priced much closer to solid copper cable. This is an incredibly cost effective way of manufacturing very high-quality digital-audio cables.

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION: Hard-Cell Foam insulation is used exclusively in most of AudioQuest’s video and digital audio cables. Similar to Foamed-PE, it is nitrogen injected to create air pockets. ‘Hard’ foam is used because the stiffness of the material allows the conductors in the cable to maintain the same relationship with each other along the full length of the cable, thus ensuring that the characteristic impedance of the cable is consistent.

100% SHIELD COVERAGE (FOIL + TINNED BRAID): Shielding always plays an important role in any cable design, but the shield on coax interconnect plays an especially important role because it functions not only as a shield but a return path as well. Because of this, AudioQuest pays special attention to the shield’s metal quality and the fabrication techniques as both will affect the sound and the picture.

CARBON-BASED 3-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.

TERMINATIONS: Cold-Welded, Gold-Plated

Coffee

SOLID 10% SILVER CONDUCTORS: Solid conductors eliminate strand-interaction distortion and reduce jitter. Solid silver-plated conductors are excellent for very high-frequency applications. These signals, being such a high frequency, travel almost exclusively on the surface of the conductor. As the surface is made of high-purity silver, the performance is very close to that of a solid silver cable, but priced much closer to solid copper cable. This is an incredibly cost effective way of manufacturing very high-quality digital-audio cables.

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION: Hard-Cell Foam insulation is used exclusively in most of AudioQuest’s video and digital audio cables. Similar to Foamed-PE, it is nitrogen injected to create air pockets. ‘Hard’ foam is used because the stiffness of the material allows the conductors in the cable to maintain the same relationship with each other along the full length of the cable, thus ensuring that the characteristic impedance of the cable is consistent.

100% SHIELD COVERAGE (FOIL + TINNED BRAID): Shielding always plays an important role in any cable design, but the shield on coax interconnect plays an especially important role because it functions not only as a shield but a return path as well. Because of this, AudioQuest pays special attention to the shield’s metal quality and the fabrication techniques as both will affect the sound and the picture.

72V DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1): All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest’s DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. This minimizes both energy storage in the insulation and the multiple nonlinear time-delays that occur. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.

CARBON-BASED 7-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.

TERMINATIONS: Cold-Welded, Hanging-Silver directly over pure Red Copper.

Diamond

SOLID 100% PERFECT-SURFACE SILVER (PSS) CONDUCTORS: Perfect-Surface Technology applied to extreme-purity silver provides unprecedented clarity and dynamic contrast. Solid conductors prevent strand interaction, a major source of cable distortion. Extremely high-purity Perfect-Surface Silver minimizes distortion caused by the grain boundaries that exist within any metal conductor, nearly eliminating harshness and greatly increasing clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers.

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION: Hard-Cell Foam insulation is used exclusively in most of AudioQuest’s video and digital audio cables. Similar to Foamed-PE, it is nitrogen injected to create air pockets. ‘Hard’ foam is used because the stiffness of the material allows the conductors in the cable to maintain the same relationship with each other along the full length of the cable, thus ensuring that the characteristic impedance of the cable is consistent.

100% SHIELD COVERAGE (FOIL + TINNED BRAID): Shielding always plays an important role in any cable design, but the shield on coax interconnect plays an especially important role because it functions not only as a shield but a return path as well. Because of this, AudioQuest pays special attention to the shield’s metal quality and the fabrication techniques as both will affect the sound and the picture.

72V DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1): All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest’s DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. This minimizes both energy storage in the insulation and the multiple nonlinear time-delays that occur. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.

CARBON-BASED 7-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.

TERMINATIONS: Cold-Welded, Hanging-Silver directly over pure Red Copper.

WEL Signature Digital

SOLID 100% PERFECT-SURFACE SILVER (PSS) CONDUCTORS: Perfect-Surface Technology applied to extreme-purity silver provides unprecedented clarity and dynamic contrast. Solid conductors prevent strand interaction, a major source of cable distortion. Extremely high-purity Perfect-Surface Silver minimizes distortion caused by the grain boundaries that exist within any metal conductor, nearly eliminating harshness and greatly increasing clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers.

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION: Hard-Cell Foam insulation is used exclusively in most of AudioQuest’s video and digital audio cables. Similar to Foamed-PE, it is nitrogen injected to create air pockets. ‘Hard’ foam is used because the stiffness of the material allows the conductors in the cable to maintain the same relationship with each other along the full length of the cable, thus ensuring that the characteristic impedance of the cable is consistent.

100% SHIELD COVERAGE (FOIL + SILVER-PLATED SPIRAL): Shielding always plays an important role in any cable design, but the shield on coax interconnect plays an especially important role because it functions not only as a shield but a return path as well. Because of this, AudioQuest pays special attention to the shield’s metal quality and the fabrication techniques as both will affect the sound and the picture.

72V DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1): All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest’s DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. This minimizes both energy storage in the insulation and the multiple nonlinear time-delays that occur. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.

CARBON-BASED 7-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS), 3 x EMI ABSORPTION: 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.

TERMINATIONS: Cold-Welded, Hanging-Silver directly over machined pure Red Copper.

Wild Digital

SOLID 100% PERFECT-SURFACE SILVER (PSS) CONDUCTORS: Perfect-Surface Technology applied to extreme-purity silver provides unprecedented clarity and dynamic contrast. Solid conductors prevent strand interaction, a major source of cable distortion. Extremely high-purity Perfect-Surface Silver minimizes distortion caused by the grain boundaries that exist within any metal conductor, nearly eliminating harshness and greatly increasing clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers.

HARD-CELL FOAM INSULATION: Hard-Cell Foam insulation is used exclusively in most of AudioQuest’s video and digital audio cables. Similar to Foamed-PE, it is nitrogen injected to create air pockets. ‘Hard’ foam is used because the stiffness of the material allows the conductors in the cable to maintain the same relationship with each other along the full length of the cable, thus ensuring that the characteristic impedance of the cable is consistent.

100% SHIELD COVERAGE (FOIL + SILVER-PLATED SPIRAL): Shielding always plays an important role in any cable design, but the shield on coax interconnect plays an especially important role because it functions not only as a shield but a return path as well. Because of this, AudioQuest pays special attention to the shield’s metal quality and the fabrication techniques as both will affect the sound and the picture.

72V DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1): All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest’s DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. This minimizes both energy storage in the insulation and the multiple nonlinear time-delays that occur. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.

CARBON-BASED 7-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS), 2 x EMI ABSORPTION: 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.

TERMINATIONS: Cold-Welded, Hanging-Silver directly over machined pure Red Copper.

Angel

Note: All cables in our Bridges & Falls Series place their left and right channels in a single jacket, and feature our Asymmetrical Double-Balanced geometry with separate high-quality positive and negative conductors. This design allows for a thin, flexible, and uniquely versatile high-performance cable that can be terminated with a variety of today’s connections, including 3.5mm (male or female), DIN, and RCA. In Bridges & Falls, you’ll find better metals and more sophisticated technologies — including Air-Tube insulation, Dielectric-Bias System, and Noise-Dissipation System — at lower prices than ever before. Do keep in mind, however, that, by necessity, the plugs on Bridges & Falls cables are fairly close together. If the L and R inputs of your components are more than 3″ (7.6cm) apart, please consider models from our Rivers or Elements Series.

Venezuela’s Angel Falls is the world’s highest waterfall, with a height of 979 meters (3,212 ft) and a plunge of 807 meters (2,648 ft). The Spanish name “Salto Ángel,” and the English name “Angel Falls,” come from Jimmie Angel’s surname. Angel was a US aviator who was the first to fly over the falls. In addition to its singular status as a waterfall, and the above-and-beyond status of angels, pure-silver Angel cable gets its name in part because Ag is the chemical name for silver.

SOLID 100% PERFECT-SURFACE SILVER (PSS) CONDUCTORS: Perfect-Surface Technology applied to extreme-purity silver provides unprecedented clarity and dynamic contrast. Solid conductors prevent strand interaction, a major source of cable distortion. Extremely high-purity Perfect-Surface Silver minimizes distortion caused by the grain boundaries which exist within any metal conductor, nearly eliminating harshness and greatly increasing clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers.

FEP AIR-TUBE INSULATION (FEP is a Fluoro-Polymer): Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy (loss). Some of this energy is stored and then later released as distortion. All of Angel’s conductors use Air-Tube insulation because air absorbs next to no energy, and FEP is the best extrudable solid insulation and absorbs less energy than other materials. The FEP Air-Tubes used in Angel have almost nothing but air around the solid PSS conductors.

DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM (DBS, US Pat #s 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1): All insulation slows down the signal on the conductor inside. When insulation is unbiased, it slows down parts of the signal differently, a big problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest’s DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. This minimizes both energy storage in the insulation and the multiple nonlinear time-delays that occur. Sound appears from a surprisingly black background with unexpected detail and dynamic contrast. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.

CARBON-BASED 3-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment’s ground reference requires AQ’s Noise-Dissipation System. Metal and Carbon-Loaded synthetics prevent most RFI from reaching the equipment’s ground plane.

ASYMMETRICAL DOUBLE-BALANCED GEOMETRY: Purpose designed for single-ended applications, Asymmetrical Double-Balanced Geometry offers a relatively lower impedance on the ground for a richer, and more dynamic experience. While many single-ended cable designs use a single path for both the ground and the shield, Double-Balanced designs separate the two for cleaner, quieter performance.

COLD-WELDED, DIRECT-SILVER PLATED PURE RED COPPER TERMINATIONS: This plug design allows for a connection devoid of solder, which is a common source of distortion. Because the ground shells are stamped instead of machined, the metal can be chosen for low distortion instead of machinability. Red Copper offers a cleaner, clearer sound over nickel-plated or OFHC metals commonly found in competing manufacturers’ plugs. Direct-Silver Plating offers one more important step toward greater clarity and doing no harm to the signal.

CHOICE OF APPLICATIONS:

Aspen

SOLID PERFECT-SURFACE COPPER+/PERFECT-SURFACE COPPER (PSC+/PSC) CONDUCTORS: Aspen uses a carefully finessed combination of high-purity Perfect-Surface Copper (PSC), and extreme high-purity Perfect-Surface Copper+ (PSC+) conductors in a Self-Shielding Double Counter-Spiral HyperLitz design. Solid conductors prevent strand interaction, a major source of distortion. Surface quality is critical because a conductor can be considered as a rail-guide for both the electric fields within a conductor, and for the magnetic fields outside the conductor. The astonishingly smooth and pure Perfect-Surface nearly eliminates harshness and greatly increases clarity compared to OFHC, OCC, 8N and other coppers. The superior purity of PSC+ further minimizes distortion caused by grain boundaries, which exist within any metal conductor.

DIELECTRIC-BIAS SYSTEM (DBS, US PAT #S 7,126,055 & 7,872,195 B1): Insulation is an electrical barrier, and also a “dielectric” because it is inside the conductor’s magnetic field. All insulation slows down and smears the signal inside. When insulation is unbiased, it causes different amounts of delay for different frequencies and energy levels, a real problem for very time-sensitive multi-octave audio. AudioQuest’s DBS creates a strong, stable electrostatic field which saturates and polarizes (organizes) the molecules of the insulation. Saturated (full) insulation absorbs less and therefore releases less out-of-phase energy. Minimizing nonlinear time delays results in clearer sound emerging from a “blacker” background. The DBS battery packs will last for years. A test button and LED allow for the occasional battery check.

DOUBLE COUNTER-SPIRAL GEOMETRY: Aspen and the other AQ “Tree” Series cables have an inner circular array of positive conductors spiraling in one direction. Around this inner group, the negative conductors spiral in the opposite direction, which makes possible the significant performance advantage of the positive and negative conductors crossing each other instead of being parallel. However, the critical need for positive and negative to have a fixed non-changing relationship is ensured as the negative and positive groups are in fact two tubes with a perfectly consistent relationship. The result is an astonishing clarity, like focusing a camera lens you had no idea was so far out of focus.

CARBON-BASED NOISE-DISSIPATION AND CROSSTALK-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (INSULATION): The negative conductors in Aspen are covered with partially conductive Carbon-Loaded Polyethylene. This remarkable material damps radio-frequency garbage from being fed back into the amplifier. The sonic benefit is exactly the same reduction in “hash” and improved dimensionality that comes whenever RF interference is reduced in an audio circuit. Another carbon layer also damps interaction between positive and negative conductors, and an external 3-layer carbon-based NDS System additionally absorbs external interference.

SPREAD-SPECTRUM TECHNOLOGY (SST): Any single size or shape of conductor has a specific distortion profile. Even though radially symmetrical conductors (solid or tubular) have the fewest discontinuities, any particular size still has a sonic signature. SST is a method for significantly reducing the awareness of these character flaws by using a precise combination of different size conductors. The different SST-determined conductor sizes used in Aspen allow an exceptionally clear, clean and dynamic sound.

BIWIRING: When possible, running separate conductors or separate cables to the treble and bass halves of a speaker will considerably reduce distortion. BiWiring helps by keeping the large magnetic fields associated with bass energy out of the treble cable, allowing the delicate upper frequencies to travel a less disturbed path, like keeping the big waves out of the water when you swim. Although Aspen is an ideal Full-Range cable, it has also been designed to make it possible to truly Single-BiWire. Many multi-conductor cables claim to be good for BiWiring, but unless there is real magnetic isolation between the bass and treble conductor groups, dividing such cables into bass and treble can actually be worse than keeping them together.

TERMINATIONS: Aspen is prepared by Cold-Welding AudioQuest’s 1000 Series Hanging-Silver Multi-Spades or Bananas. The plugs are plated directly over pure Red Copper by submerging (hanging) the spades and bananas into a vat of extreme-purity silver, resulting in a very thick Direct-Silver Plate. There are no intermediary performance degrading materials. Aspen’s breakouts (where the cable divides into positive and negative legs) are also special: Because a metal breakout would disrupt the cable’s magnetic fields, Aspen’s breakouts are magnetically invisible ABS.

DIRECTIONS: Because all drawn metal is directional, all audio cables are directional. AudioQuest analog and digital audio cables are all controlled for correct directionality. The best sound is made possible by following the “Amp” and “Speaker” labels on Aspen’s breakouts.